Establishing Marine Protected Area Networks - Georgia Strait Alliance

W
HAT
ARE THE BROADER
CONSIDERATIONS NEEDED TO
ENSURE THAT MPA NETWORKS
ARE SET IN CONTEXT?
To help ensure the success of MPA networks, designers must also reflect on:
Economic and social considerations:
❏ Integrate the network into the economic and socio-cultural setting and
promote activities that maximize positive benefits.Planners need to identify
the broad costs and benefits provided by effectively managed MPA networks, as
well as the indirect and opportunity costs incurred by people living in and around
protected areas. One tool for making these calculations is economic valuation
of consumptive and non-consumptive activities and non-use values, such as those
provided by ecosystem services. Current social relationships and aspirations,
cultural traditions and values, and political processes that influence attitudes and
decisions about coastal and marine resource use and protection are also important
considerations.
❏ Evaluate the economies of scale provided by networks, as well as the
costs of inaction. Network planners should consider the increased benefits and
economies of scale when moving from an individual MPA to a network of MPAs,
as well as the costs of inaction – that is, of not creating a network. For example,
MPA networks may provide value-added benefits over individual MPAs, such as
increased ecosystem services and reduced management costs per unit area.
Spatial and temporal considerations reflect the
fact that ecosystems function at different scales and
change over time due to factors such as human
activities or climate change. Planners should:
❏ Take actions to address ecological processes,
resources and impacts that extend beyond network
boundaries or influence MPA networks.
Network design must account for connectivity
within and between networks, as well as the
impacts of activities outside network boundaries,
including upstream areas such as catchments. Given
the fluid nature of the ocean environment, network
planners must apply all available information on
biological, chemical, and physical linkages–within
the network and beyond.
❏ Address the concept of “shifting baselines”
in network design. The “shifting baseline syndrome”
is the failure of managers and decision makers
to fully grasp the enormous changes that have
occurred in ocean ecosystems because they have
occurred gradually over many years. Managers
often fail to see that their baseline already represents
a disturbed state.Therefore, it is especially
important that planners set historically appropriate
objectives for the MPA network.
Scientific and information management
considerations. Science and information play
fundamental roles in planning and implementing
MPA networks. Yet managers must do more than
apply available information; they must seek new
information that is pertinent to management and
create mechanisms for gathering such information.
Network planners and managers should:
❏ Develop and employ appropriate scientific
skills, tools, training and partnerships to design
and systematically monitor MPA networks.
Planners can address this in a number of ways: by
setting research priorities and training requirements
based on management needs; by creating auditing
science programs that seek to assess and optimize
results; and/or by incorporating end-user and
manager input into multi-annual scientific work
programs.
❏ Ensure standardization, synthesis, storage
and access to information across and among
MPA networks. Information on individual MPAs
may be scattered across institutions and /or individuals.
Planners should foster coordination among
institutions, develop information archives and create
mechanisms for ensuring broad access to information.
Such systems should be actively managed and
should provide relevant historical data as well as
current scientific knowledge.
Institutional and governance considerations.
Institutional and governance arrangements can have
a significant effect on network design and management.
In some cases, these institutional arrangements
have taken shape over many years and were devised
to meet the demands of the time, rather than the
need for developing representative and effectively
managed MPA networks or meeting sustainability
objectives. Network planners and managers should,
therefore:
❏ Develop and maintain effective coordination
and linkages across sectors and jurisdictions.
Government agencies often fail to coordinate their
marine-based activities, resulting in a divided and
insular management approach aligned with sectorbased
laws.This can mean duplication of effort, failure
to address cumulative impacts and a poor outcome
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